Politics

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (September 23, 2014) - Disability Rights Center of Arkansas (DRC) and Arkansas State Independent Living Council will host voter education events around central Arkansas on Wednesday and next Tuesday.

Sha Stephens the executive director of the Arkansas State Independent Living Council will be available for interviews on site at the voter registration and education event. These are education events set up to provide people with disabilities with information about voter registration, the right to vote, and the upcoming election.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A lawsuit has been filed with the Arkansas Supreme Court aiming to block from the November ballot a proposal to gradually raise the state's minimum wage.

The lawsuit filed Monday asked justices to prevent the state from putting on the ballot the proposed initiated act, which would raise the state's minimum wage from $6.25 an hour to $8.50 an hour by 2017. Election officials earlier this month certified the measure for the ballot.

The lawsuit claims the state used the wrong deadline for accepting petitions for the measure, and also challenges the signatures submitted.

The attorney who filed the challenge did not immediately return a call seeking comment. The chairman of the group backing the wage hike said he was reviewing the lawsuit.

(Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - The competition between political candidates in Arkansas is heating up this year and so are their ad campaigns. With the Senate race in the national spotlight, candidates are pulling out all the stops, and that includes bashing their opponent. But do negative ads really make an impact? And how do they hold up against positive campaigns?

Dr. Greg Schufeldt, a political science professor at UALR, studies the influence of negative ads versus positive ads. He says it's all in the eye of the beholder, or rather, the political party you're affiliated with because everyone sees the facts differently.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - All four members of Arkansas' U.S. House delegation have voted in support of President Barack Obama's request to train and arm rebels battling Islamic State militants in Syria.

The House passed the measure on a 273-156 vote on Wednesday, and the Senate is expected to take up the request Thursday.

Arkansas congressmen Tom Cotton, Rick Crawford, Tim Griffin and Steve Womack were among 159 Republicans who voted in favor of the president's plan. The measure also had the backing of 114 Democrats in the House.

The proposal was added to a must-pass, stopgap spending bill to keep government agencies operating into December. The measure is the last major business on Capitol Hill before lawmakers depart this week.

(Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (September 16, 2014) — The County Judges Association of Arkansas voted to adopt a resolution in opposition to the "Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Amendment" during its summer meeting in Little Rock.

The Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Amendment is a proposed amendment to the Arkansas Constitution to provide that, effective July 1, 2015, the manufacture, sale, distribution and transportation of intoxicating liquors is lawful within the entire geographic area of each and every county of this state.

According to the resolution, "traditionally, under the Arkansas Constitution and Amendment 55, the people of Arkansas have proclaimed their view in favor of 'home rule' and local control."

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Secretary of State Mark Martin is asking the Arkansas Supreme Court to dismiss a lawsuit trying to block from the November ballot a proposal to expand alcohol sales to all 75 of the state's counties.

Martin's office on Tuesday responded to the lawsuit filed last week by Citizens for Local Rights, which argues the state used the wrong deadline for accepting petitions to place the alcohol measure on the November ballot. The group argues that the state should have used July 4 as the deadline, rather than July 7. Martin last month certified the measure for the November ballot.

Martin cited a 1999 law that allows election officials to rely on the next business day if a deadline falls on a holiday.

(Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Government auditors say Arkansas' private option Medicaid plan will cost taxpayers an extra $778 million over the next three years rather than being "revenue-neutral" to the federal budget.

The Department of Health and Human Services disagreed with the findings, which were released Monday. It said the federal Government Accountability Office didn't take into consideration major program changes within Arkansas' Medicaid system.

A spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe said the report was prepared without anyone at the GAO contacting Arkansas for its input. Spokesman Matt DeCample said the state should expect higher startup costs as 200,000 people enter the health care system, but that costs eventually will be lower as the population becomes healthier.

Under the plan, Arkansas will use Medicaid funds to provide private health insurance for poor people.